Guides

Listing a comic book lot on eBay: the issues in the title, the price, the weight and the photos

By Winston, Comic Collector Enthusiast. 26 September 2026.

Every long box has comics that will not sell one at a time: a run of the same series, a mini-series you have all of, a stack of dollar books from the early 1990s. Put together they are one listing that a buyer filling a run or a gap actually wants, and one parcel instead of eight. This is how to list one so it gets found, is priced as what it is, and does not cost you the postage.

When a lot beats singles

This is one store's practice, not a rule. A lot earns its place when the comics in it are worth more together than apart: a run of one series, a complete mini-series, or cheap singles that have sat for months. A buyer filling a run is buying the run, and you ship once.

Two things never go in a lot without a second look. A key, because it carries demand the issues around it do not, and a lot price averages that away; the pricing guide is about spotting one. And an issue you already have live on its own: the lot is a different product from the single, but it competes with it on price, which the duplicate listings guide covers.

Name every issue in the title

Buyers search issue numbers. A title that says "Lot of 12" names none of the numbers they type, so the title names the issues, then says it is a lot, then spends whatever is left of eBay's 80 characters on a character, a creator, the publisher and the year. Here are four lots of one series, titled that way, with the issues in each lot on the left:

Three habits are in those titles, and they are worth copying by hand:

• Gaps are shown, not smoothed over. Five comics from #1 to #7 are "#1-3 #5 #7", never "#1-7". A range that is not all there invites a "where is #6" message, or a return.
• A long, scattered lot gives its first and last issue and its count. "#1-18 (12 Issues)" keeps both ends searchable and tells the buyer, before they click, that it is not the whole run.
• "Complete Series" only when it is. Buyers pay for those two words, and a run with a hole in it sold as complete comes back.

An issue that is not a whole number is named rather than dropped: a lot of 1/2, 1, 2 and 3 reads #1/2 #1-3, and a lot of 1, 2 and Annual 1 reads #1-2 Annual 1, so the #1/2 is in the title for a buyer who searches for it.

The item specifics a lot needs

Two of the comic item specifics change for a lot. C:Unit of Sale is Comic Book Lot rather than Single Unit, which says in the listing's item specifics that it is several comics. And C:Issue Number should carry every issue in the lot, not just the first one, so the specifics describe the whole lot. Whether eBay's issue filter then finds a lot by an issue in the middle of that value, the 5 in 1-3 5 7, has not been confirmed here. The last column of the table above is that field for each lot. Every item specific value is capped at 65 characters, and a longer one refuses the row at upload, so on a very long lot the list is trimmed at a whole issue number rather than in the middle of one. The rest of the specifics are the same as a single's, and the item specifics guide covers them field by field.

List the issues again in the description

The title has 80 characters and the description has room. Say how many comics are in the lot and name every one of them, in order, so the buyer can check it against their want list without zooming into a photograph. A line as plain as Includes issues: #1, #2, #3, #5, #7. does it. If one comic in the lot is in noticeably worse shape than the rest, the description is where to say so, by issue number.

Price the lot as a lot

A lot is not the box price times the number of comics, and it is certainly not the box price. It is an easy mistake to make in a bulk file, because a lot row at $2.99 looks exactly like every other row at $2.99. Look for sold lots of the same series, the way the pricing guide describes for a single, and price what you have against them.

Weigh it, and box it

A single comic in a mailer is a few ounces. A lot is pounds, and when the weight on the listing is wrong, the postage the buyer paid and the postage you pay stop being the same number. Estimated at 3 ounces a comic, a 26 comic lot is 4 lb 14 oz before the box. Weigh a real one and use that. The comic shipping weight calculator shows the weight and package this product writes for a lot of 2 to 500 comics. Comics are not on the Media Mail list; the Media Mail guide quotes the rules.

Photograph the group first

The first photo of a lot should show every comic in it at once, laid out so each cover can be read. After that, the covers one by one, and any flaw worth naming. eBay shows up to 24 photos on a listing, so on a lot bigger than that, two or three group shots carry the comics that do not get a photo of their own. The photography guide covers the setup.

How Point and Sell builds a lot

Shooting. On the camera page, press Lot before you shoot one. The page stops moving on to the next comic at your usual shot count and waits for Next comic, so a lot can take as many shots as it needs, up to 24; a shot past that is refused on the spot, because eBay would not show it. When the last shot of a lot follows a pause, the way a group shot taken after laying the comics out does, approving the batch makes it the lot's first photo. Otherwise, the review screen's cover button makes any other photo of the row the first one.

The issues. On the review screen a lot is a row with lot ticked and its issue numbers in the Lot issues box: 0, 1, 2-5 is the shape. The box wants every comic's number, not how many there are, so a single number on its own is refused, with a note that it may be a count and that copies of one issue go in Qty. A range that runs backwards, or one wider than 500 issues, is refused as a typo. Tick complete for a complete run and the title says Complete Series.

What it writes. The title, C:Issue Number, C:Unit of Sale and the Includes issues line, as above. The weight is the number of comics times your ounces per comic (3 until you change it), plus what your Settings say the box adds (nothing, until you say otherwise), and a lot of more than 25 comics gets your larger package size. A weight you type yourself wins, and if it is under half or over twice that estimate the batch warns you, because pounds typed into the ounces box is the mistake it is there to catch. If you have an eBay store, a lot goes to your store category for complete runs or for other lots, unless one of your own store rules sends it somewhere else first.

The price. A lot still at the batch's single-comic starting price is refused at approval, by row, until you type its own price.

Lots from singles that did not sell. The Stale stock page lists your listings older than the number of days you choose, counted from the first listings report you gave the site that showed them, and points out runs in them: three or more singles of one series in one box. Tick a run, or at least two singles of one series in one box, and press Make a lot of the ticked rows. The lot arrives on the review screen with no price, and is refused until you type one. Once the lot is approved, its done page offers the file that ends the singles still live in your last listings report. If the site sends that End to eBay for you, it waits until eBay's report shows the lot live; if you download the file, upload the lot first, so the comics are not off eBay in both forms at once.

What it does not do, as of today. It does not price a lot, and it does not check the issues in the Lot issues box against the comics in the photographs: whatever is in that box is what the title, the item specifics and the description say, so read it against the stack. It does not list graded comics as a lot; a slab ticked graded and lot is refused, because each one has its own grade and certification number. And the weight is an estimate from a count until you weigh the parcel.

Try it on a box · More guides

Sources

The 80 character title, the 24 photo limit and the 65 character item specific cap are eBay's, as this site's item specifics, File Exchange and photography guides describe them; the 65 character refusal is one this store's own uploads have met. The Power of the Atom #1-8 lot is from one of this store's own boxes; the other three are the same series with the issues changed to show each shape. The titles, issue numbers and examples above are generated by the product's own title builder on the day this page is served, and everything else about the product is its code on the day this was published. When to lot and how to price one is one working comic seller's practice, not a rule.